Another Day 62 & 63: Closing This Chapter

 

Holidays and weekends don't count, so I'm holding at 62 days unemployed. Considering I'm getting paid, am I really unemployed ? I guess so. It's going to continue to be a scary place until I have a job. For now, I consider this time off to be an extended vacation. I haven't been unemployed since 1985, so this has been a difficult adjustment.

Another weekend is coming to a close and Sunday's are no longer filled with regret for all the things I didn't do .. because I don't have a job to go to tomorrow. I won't lie .. it's kind of nice to just hang out and do whatever you want when you feel like it. Only problem with that is my savings won't last forever ! Besides, I'm too young to retire so I'm going to keep trying to find a job.

I didn't do much this weekend. No need to go to the grocery store because I didn't need anything. I will go tomorrow or Tuesday to pick up a couple things, including some snacks for my weekend baseball trip. I have to be at Rich & Barb's house at 1 pm Friday and won't be back until Sunday afternoon. I'm a little nervous leaving Minnie for 2 days but I plan to leave extra food and water. She will miss her canned food but she likes her dry food. The stray cats are a concern too, so I will leave them extra food and water as well. We're booked on a train excursion Saturday along with the baseball game, so it's going to be a full day ! I think there is another train attraction Rich wants to visit on Sunday before we come home. The train is $60, the game is $15 and the hotel is about $103. Then you have the cost of food and beverages. You do get a burger, chips and water included with the train fare. I plan to pack my insulated bag with some drinks and snacks. I thought about the money I'm spending and couldn't see a reason not to. After all, I've spent more than that at the casino since I was laid off.

I say I didn't do much this weekend, but I didn't sit on my butt the whole time. I'm vacuuming every day in the war against fleas. I cleaned litter boxes yesterday and the carpet in the laundry room is vacuumed every day as well. Today I did 2 loads of laundry, just sheets & blankets that I use to cover the furniture along with the blanket Minnie likes to lay on in my bed. With fleas in the house it's important to clean all the bedding. When I went to bed last night I noted some fleas so there I was at midnight vacuuming my bedroom. I will vacuum it again when I go to bed tonight. I'm going to change the sheets and possibly wash the comforter as well. The fleas are not 100% gone so I may buy some flea powder and/or spray for the carpet when I go to Walmart. I've used it in the past and it worked well. The fleas I'm seeing are tiny specks, so they're still hatching. I haven't seen any that I would call an adult, so these may just be eggs that the vacuum hasn't picked up. Minnie is scratching occasionally so the flea treatment may not have killed all the fleas. I will treat her again in about a week. I managed to clip the nails on one of her paws yesterday, but I still need to do the other one. She did NOT like it - never has - and I didn't want to stress her by forcing her to let me trim the other foot.

I had big hopes for today when it comes to exercise. I got dressed, put on my sneakers, turned on the treadmill and charged my tablet. Then I sat on the couch for too long. By the time I ate dinner it had gotten pretty hot and I was tired. I wasn't getting on the treadmill. Tomorrow I will get on it right after breakfast. NO EXCUSES ! I did eat better today, so that is a start. Waffles and a yogurt for breakfast. Chicken bacon ranch quesadilla and a salad for lunch. Pizza for dinner. Three bite size Snickers after dinner. Lemon zest cake for evening snack. 

Today was the last pizza. I have 8 crusts, about 1.5 bottles of pizza sauce, 1.5 packages of pepperoni and about 1/3 bag of mozzarella left. I will need to buy mozzarella but the other ingredients should be enough. I am going to make 8 pizzas for the freezer. I'll prepare the pizzas, freeze them on a cookie sheet and then wrap them in saran and foil. I will have a pizza ONCE per week until they are gone. I have gotten off track with taking my vitamins so I need to address that as well. 

Tomorrow is going to be the start of a NEW Nutrisystem journey, so I'm going to jump over to a new blog. I had prepared one for when I start a new job, but I don't know when that is going to happen so I'm going to use it for a fresh start with Nutrisystem. So today is the last post for this blog. If and when I start a new job, I will start a new blog specifically for that purpose. Tomorrow will be a busy day as I force myself back into the Nutrisystem way of life. Here's how I want the day to look:

• get up
• feed cats
• have coffee & breakfast, take vitamin D & E
• get dressed
• go to Walmart
• get mail
• put on sneaks
• get on treadmill
• prepare pizzas for the freezer
• cut up lettuce for salad
• protein shake
• get on treadmill
• have lunch
• get on treadmill
• have afternoon snack
• get on treadmill
• have dinner
• get on treadmill
• have evening snack
• take shower
• do skincare
• brush teeth
• go to bed

This is an ambitious schedule, but it's completely doable. Four times on the treadmill seems like a lot, but the series I'm going to do consists of workout of less than 20 minutes. We'll see how I do. This is the goal and if I get on the treadmill at least once, it's better than not getting on it at all. I will need to take new "before" photos and weigh myself tomorrow. I know the number on the scale is going to be quite depressing but it has to be done.

This may seem like a bad time to start a diet, since I'll be gone for the weekend, but you have to start sometime and life is going to happen no matter what. The weekend away will be a good opportunity to work harder to make smart choices when it comes to food. I plan to pack cheese, veggies and fruit to snack on. There is also my Wednesday night rock and roll bingo trips. I usually have 2 glasses of wine or 2 beers, along with a buffalo chicken wrap with homemade potato chips. Last week I only ate half of the wrap and had the leftovers for lunch the next day. I may change to the chicken caesar wrap as that has grilled chicken and no cheese. Really it's all about making smarter choices.

What I can't fit into this diet is candy, cookies and ice cream. When the bag of candy I have is gone, that's it. I have one serving of ice cream left and then that's it. I have no cookies in the house. I have one bag of Chex mix left and I'll bring that on the baseball trip to share. I won't be buying any more. Chip and dip is off the menu too. I'll be saving a ton of calories AND a ton of money because junk food is expensive !

Tomorrow will be day 63 without a job and I'm ready to stop counting. My new blog will be all about my diet and exercise efforts. I am financially secure for at least a year and will hopefully get a job before I have to start paying big money for medical insurance on 12-1. It's been over 2 months and it's time to put that negativity behind me. I've wallowed in sorrow for a bit and it's time to pull up my big girl panties and make my life better. It's not going to happen without some serious effort on my part.

If and when I do find a job, I'm not going to stop looking. Some people talk about having 2 remote jobs and if I can swing that I may give it a try, especially if I have to settle for a low paying job. Ideally I only want to have one job, so I will keep looking unless the job I get pays well.

Tomorrow I need to spend some time working on my resume and applying to jobs. Even though my list of "to do" seems long, there is plenty of time in the day !

On that note, it's just about 11:30 and time for bed.